The Spirited Crane - Chapter 1: Change of Ordinariness
<- Info page Next chapter -> Chapter 1: Change of Ordinariness “One day, you’ll replace me and become extraordinary.” Beep... beep... beep... The alarm went off endlessly, forcing Dearan to lift himself up from his warm and comfy bed. It was already March, but he still could not feel any bit of warmth from the Sun. Dearan lazily got off his bed, and opened his wardrobe. It was a small space, so not much was stored in there, but his set of uniform could be fully seen hung on the metal bar. Dearan stood there staring at his uniform. A black blazer was hanging, with a white shirt and long dark grey trousers underneath the blazer on the same hanger. He used to wear black trousers, but apparently it was the school rule to wear dark grey ones. He could never see the difference though. The boy sighed, reminding himself of the dream he just had, which he had experienced many times more than ordinary. He looked over to his desk, which except for a pile of notes and textbooks, there was also a photo frame, but was placed down flat with the photo hidden from sight. Dearan shook himself off from his thoughts, and got ready in haste. He would be late for school if he continued standing there for nothing. His bedroom was situated at the end of the hall on the first floor of the house, with the bathroom on the opposite. In order to get to the stairs, he needed to walk past two more rooms: a locked storage room, and his aunt’s room respectively. However, when he walked past, he noticed that the locked room was unlocked, leaving a thin gap which allowed him to peek inside. There were only cardboard boxes stacked in pillars, along with some other items that were no longer used. Dearan now pushed the door wide open, so that he could get a bigger view. He noticed that everything was moved aside, leaving a fairly spacious area, as though something would be moved into here soon. But again, he could not stand here for too long, as he needed to go to school. Dearan walked downstairs to the kitchen, where his aunt left him some sandwiches for breakfast, and a note. “Here are some cheese and ham sandwiches. Sorry that it’s plain. The fridge is running out of food again. I’ll make sure to refill it this weekend. Also, can you come home earlier today? Your long-distance cousin is coming to stay with us! Isn’t that exciting?" Dearan made another sigh in response. He hated socialising. God knows what would happen to him if the cousin would be a lively one. He probably would not be able to handle the large amount of questions that would be coming to him, nor would he have any good topics to fit into a conversation. He did not bother with it anymore, and instead finished his breakfast and went out to school with his yellow and slightly torn backpack. As he walked out of the door, he looked up to the sky. Slightly grey clouds covered all over his region, as if there was a huge blank piece of paper on top of them. Not even the Sun could be seen, but only streams of faint light coming from above signified its existence. Dearan attempted to extend his arm around his back, feeling it, making sure that he got his umbrella on the left slot of the backpack. Then he unwillingly set off. After a walk of ten minutes or so, Dearan had arrived at his school gate. He stared at the school name, which was hung on the arch. He sighed, and casually walked through the arch. The school had a policy in which each student was assigned to a teacher, who would take on the role as a tutor to take care of the student at school. Every day before the first lesson started, students were required to meet their tutors, Dearan was obviously included. But soon after he walked into the school, someone called him. As though expected, Dearan sighed and turned around as three people were walking towards him maliciously. The leader was the tallest of them all, while there was a second boy who looked slightly shorter, but his blonde hair was spiking out like a porcupine. The third person was a girl with brown skin and long black hair, clearly originated from Middle East or south Asian areas. “Look who’s back? It’s the teacher’s pet, Dearan Action,” the leader said. Dearan did not look frightened at all. Instead, he was irritated. He sighed and turned around to continue his walk. However, the leader did not allow that. He immediately grabbed Dearan by his backpack from the back. “Hey! Don’t you dare ignore me!” He shouted. “What do you want then, Mellan? Every day you just come at me and try to ‘insult’ me, when I don’t even feel anything. Aren’t you bored?” Dearan said with a straight face. “You…” Mellan raised his fist, but then Dearan continued, “Go ahead. If you punch me, I can just tell the teachers, or tell the police. If you punch me to death, you’re going to jail anyway.” “You do know that my father is the top councillor right? No one will dare to report me! You filthy punk! I was just being kind to you before! I had enough of you!” Mellan let go of Dearan, but immediately he made a hard kick between Dearan’s legs. No matter how steady Dearan was, that was still a naturally weak spot for men. His face did not change, but he slowly kneeled onto the ground, trying to take in the pain in silence. “Telling the teacher… You’re really a teacher’s pet! Better take off your pants and tell your teacher that you’re hurting there! Disgusting jerk! We’re going!” Mellan spat on him, then turned away as he ordered the other two to follow him. Dearan was left on the ground as he tried to calm himself from the pain. No one dared to help him as they did not want to be Mellan’s next target. Dearan slowly pulled himself to his tutor’s classroom. Finally, he managed to get to the classroom. Multiple other students who were sitting in there turned their heads like windmills towards Dearan. They were all under the same tutor as Dearan, so they were sitting together. Dearan ignored them and walked straight to his tutor. “Dearan! I was worried! What took you so long?” The tutor loved to give out exaggerated reactions, which Dearan hated it, but he could not be bothered to complain about it. “Urgh… I had a stomachache…” Dearan gently rubbed his belly. “You’ll get well soon. Please take a seat, I have something to say to you all.” The tutor patted Dearan’s shoulder. He ignored it and sat at the furthest corner, starting to get busy looking at his phone screen. “Ahem, may I have everyone’s attention?” The tutor announced. Everyone became quiet and sat straight, except Dearan who was still in a leisure position. However, the tutor did not seem to bother to correct him. “So, if you’ve read the news, recently there are a lot of cases of people missing. Just the first week of this month already ten people went missing, and the number is increasing. As your tutor, I wouldn’t like any of you be in any trouble. So, just be aware of your surroundings, and try to get back home as early as you can.” “Yes, Mr. Lighthouse,” the younger years replied, while the years above continued their previous discussion. They were not afraid of these missing people cases, but Mr. Lighthouse knew they were sensible enough to take care of themselves. Just then, the bell rang, signifying the start of the first lesson. Mr. Lighthouse chased his students off. Dearan was the last one. Just as he was going to walk out, Mr. Lighthouse stopped him for a talk. “How are you now?” He asked. “You mean my stomachache? I’m fine-” “You know what I mean, Dearan,” Mr. Lighthouse pulled out a chair, telling Dearan to sit down. So he did. “Sir, I’ll be late to lesson.” “Dearan, please. I’m seriously worried about you,” Mr. Lighthouse looked at him with a serious expression. That was the kind of person he was, looking like a clown in front of others, but when it came to important discussions, he became sincere. As if he was facing an intruder, Dearan frowned, “It’s none of your business.” “It is my business. You’re my student after all. I don’t want to see you wearing an expressionless face every day.” Dearan covered his ears and violently shook his head endlessly, “Enough! I don’t want to hear anymore! I’m leaving!” He rushed out of the classroom, leaving Mr. Lighthouse feeling miserable. Dearan stomped through the corridor until he arrived at the classroom for his English lesson. As usual, he ignored everyone’s stare, and casually sat down in his usual spot, taking out the studied text and his stationary. Recently they were analysing a play based on Greek tragedy. It was a normal play, but somehow it was reminding Dearan of his past. As the class progressed deeper into the story, the more Dearan felt uncomfortable, caused by headache as well the stomachache from before. However, he did not want to escape to the toilet or the nursery. He wanted to sit there to listen to the teacher, to take down all the valuable notes he could get, so that he would not fail the final exam. Eventually, he could not handle any further. His left hand was put down while still holding the book; his right hand was supporting his forehead while he closed his eyes to ease the pain. He was doing this in order to be more focused in class, though it seemed that his other classmates thought differently. “Look, he’s in that position again,” one whispered. “What’s with him? Always acting cool,” the other responded. “Yeah. Does he think that he’s so good at English that he doesn’t need to focus?” A third person added. “I bet he just stays up late every night doing disgusting things.” “Agree.” “Yeah.” “Hey! You three! Are you listening?” The teacher yelled at them, leading to the gossip finally stopped. Dearan thanked his teacher secretly from the bottom of his heart. Though he quickly felt depressed again, as he knew this would happen again in later classes, and also every day. He could only get real peace when he was not at school. And so, Dearan spent his morning in lessons and gossips. It was finally lunchtime, which was always the time when he really felt that he could take a break. Food was one of the rare things that he enjoyed. He managed to get his pasta bake in cream and cheese, and found a seat, again, at the far corner of the dining hall. As he was about to start his meal, someone else joined him. It was Mr. Lighthouse. He cheekily put down his tray opposite to Dearan, and sat down, “Oh, looks like an empty seat here.” Dearan did not bother about him. Instead, he focused on enjoying his pasta bake. To him, cheese was one of the best things in the world. He even put in a lot of pepper powder, and even made a few drops of Tabasco just to spice things up a bit. As he took in the flavour of this delicious dish in detail, he let out a faint smile. Mr. Lighthouse noticed it, so he said, “That’s why I like sitting with you. Seeing a student being happy is always the greatest thing for teachers.” The smile was quickly withdrawn as Dearan heard him. Now he glared at Mr. Lighthouse like a beast on a hunt. “So what? The other students are also smiling. You’re ruining my meal,” he said. In turn, Mr. Lighthouse was a little stunned about his cruel response, “Dearan… That’s not very nice to a teacher…” “Not like you’d get offended by that…” Dearan continued eating for a moment, then he spoke again, “Your food will get cold.” Mr. Lighthouse looked down at his tray. His plate of pasta bake was still exerting steam at his face. He took down his glasses and started rubbing off the fog with his shirt, “Thanks for reminding me. Anyway, I actually have something to ask you.” Dearan stopped eating and glared at him with even more intensity than before. Mr. Lighthouse frantically waved his hands, “No, no, no! It’s not about that! I just want to ask you about your new family member!” “Huh? What do you mean?” Dearan returned to his relaxed state and continued eating. “A new student will be joining my tutor group starting from next Monday. Tsuru Shimizu… is it? The personal information sheet told me that she’s related to you. Just want to know whether by any chance you know her. Did your aunt tell you anything?” Dearan pushed away his finished plate of pasta bake, and turned to a small plate of sliced melon and pineapple, “No. I also only got noticed this morning. Bonnie didn’t tell me anything else.” “Well, seems like she’s from Japan. Her father is Japanese, and her mother is British. Although international, this school rarely has Japanese students, so Dearan… Can I ask you to take care of her when she’s here?” Dearan put down his fork and wiped his mouth with tissue, “If she’s going to live with me and Bonnie, of course I’d take care of her. But you know, sir, you’re just asking trouble for her.” “What do you mean?” Mr. Lighthouse asked. “I’m sure you’re aware of my reputation in this school. If she… Tsuru is it… was to get close to me at school, surely she’d also get isolated by others,” Dearan stood up and lifted up his tray. He muttered, “But well… I’ll do my best…” And walked away, leaving Mr. Lighthouse once again in discomfort. The afternoon lessons proceeded as normal. However, during the biology class, Dearan suddenly felt a great pressure coming from an unknown direction. His eyes moved around, scanning the whole classroom, but none of the other classmates seemed to care about him. It meant that the pressure was not from them. He then looked out at the window, only to his surprise, Mellan was standing far away at the centre of the grass pitch. It was pouring rain, but his hands were in his pockets, and he looked calm and relaxed, as though he had just finished some tasty snack. He did not look like he cared about being completely soaked. Dearan felt something was odd. To his knowledge, although Mellan might like to extent the fact that his father was an important councillor, he was also a good boy who would not skip lessons. In fact, Mellan was one of the best students in the school. Then, Dearan realised that Mellan turned his face towards him. He quickly changed his view towards the teacher, who did not notice that he was distracted. After a short while, he looked back to the grass pitch, only to see that Mellan disappeared. After school, Dearan looked around, making sure that Mellan was not nearby. He felt a bit relieved. Usually, Mellan liked to trouble him in these times, but recently, he seemed to disappear quite often. Dearan opened his umbrella and proceeded in haste. He did not like staying in the rain. As he was getting closer to home, he noticed a girl standing at the door entrance. She had brown eyes and long orange hair, with a flower pin clipped on her right side, and a yellow ribbon tied behind her hair. What caught Dearan’s attention, though, was her clothing. She was wearing a blue kimono, with pink lotus patterns scattered on the surface. Dearan quickly ran to her, “Tsuru Shimizu?” She looked at him with curious stare, “Are you Dearan Action?” “Yeah.” Suddenly, as though she was gleaming, Tsuru clasped her hands, “Yay! I found you!” Dearan was confused. “You see, I have something very important to say…” She stopped speaking. Then she pushed Dearan to behind her, “Watch out! Something’s coming!” “What are you…” The scenery completely changed. They were inside a glamorous church with a very tall ceiling. Torches were glowing with red light along the walls on each side. The end of the church was showing a colourful glass pane, depicting a goddess; in front of the glass pane was a wide table with golden grails. What was standing in front of them was a gigantic being. It was covered in full purple armour. A snake-like belt with a demonic face coiled around its waist. Its chestplate was also expressing a face with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth. The being itself had two long golden horns extending from its head. Though looking devilish, its legs were covered by blue cuisse with by golden wave patterns. The overall feeling was divine instead of sinister. Dearan changed his focus to Tsuru, who then he noticed that had also changed. She was now bearing long silvery purple hair; the flower pin became a flower ribbon; a white leather chest armour with pink ribbons and stitches, along with golden crystals in the middle; underneath the armour was dark blue kimono with pink lotus patterns, which fainted to white at the outward of the sleeves with golden lotus patterns. The kimono only extended to her waist, which was then connected to a light blue skirt. She was also wearing black silk stockings with sandals. However, the most distinct feature would probably be the pair of white feathery wings on her back. “What… is this…?” Dearan was shaking, unable to move from his spot. Tsuru turned around, meeting his brown eyes with her purple ones, “Welcome to the Gated World, where Spirits battle.” Category:Work By Andelas Category:Fanfiction